It breaks my heart when I hear of people who can't visit partners in the hospital because they're not married, or they lose the kids if the partner dies. From my perpective, the "no gay marriage" laws are breaking up REAL families.

Thankfully, I haven't heard any bigotry here on that issue. To the so-called "religious" who make noises about the sanctity of marriage when the issue of gay marriage comes up, I have these questions:
When two hetero people marry so one of them can gain sexual access to the other's children, is this your idea of a sacred union?
When someone marries so they can have a partner/slave to abuse, is this sacred?
How about marrying for a green card?
Or money? Which would include scams.
Or convenient sex? Or boredom?
How about the 15-minute marriages of some of our celebities?

But when two gay people love each other and wish to make a social, legal, and religious commitment, why do these "religious" make so much noise about the "sacred" institute of hetero marriage?

A marriage is only as sacred as the people involved, and sexual preference doesn't determine what's in someone's heart.